Anna Ki (b. 1999, Tehran, Iran) is an artist whose work explores the complexities of contemporary identity through a deep engagement with the historical and social realities of her community.

Her early works began with live model studies, which she views as a means of understanding the relationship between the human body and its surrounding reality. This foundational approach emphasizes the fluidity and expressiveness of the figure, grounding her art in human connection and immediacy.

At the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University, her exposure to Persian miniature painting introduced vibrant colors, intricate compositions, and layered storytelling into her practice. However, this influence was used as a point of departure rather than a defining characteristic. Over time, her process was gradually shifted away from traditional frameworks, incorporating personal perspectives shaped by fleeting news feeds and ephemeral social media imagery. These sources became central to her investigation of memory and its transient nature.

In her latest works, an instinctive reaction to vibrant social energies is reflected. Created during periods of upheaval, the pieces avoid monumentalizing events, instead capturing deeply personal responses to external chaos. Collected photographs—whether familiar or anonymous—are repurposed as fragmented memories within layered compositions, reimagining the fleeting and forgotten.

Each painting undergoes a meticulous process of construction and deconstruction. Figures are added, erased, and reshaped over time, creating works that evolve organically without predefined outcomes. The absence of immediate completion imbues these pieces with a sense of time’s passage, as layers accumulate to form a cohesive whole. Even as figures vanish, their traces remain, suggesting the enduring impact of what once existed.

Simplistic narratives are deliberately avoided in her approach. The paintings neither glorify nor condemn; they resist ideological declarations, focusing instead on the tension between human fragility and resilience. Figures function as fragmented puzzles, pieced together into a singular moment frozen in time—a visual representation of the search for meaning within chaos. Familiar imagery is stripped of its original context and reshaped into new meanings that emerge through uncertainty and transformation.

Through this layered process, her art reveals a delicate balance between light and darkness, reflecting the enduring interplay of hope and despair within the human experience.